Tyngsboro Town Hall clashes follow years of friction

TYNGSBORO -- After an altercation with two other town employees last month, outgoing Town Accountant Catherine Gabriel called the police.

Her confrontation with colleagues -- both in the clerical and mid-manager unit of the local union -- left tensions high.

But beyond the finger-pointing, the incident brings to surface a series of personnel clashes between Town Hall personalities that have festered for at least a year.

Union leaders issued letters to selectmen detailing a June 24 incident in which Gabriel "verbally assaulted" and took "threatening actions" toward one of each of their employees.

The letters, provided to The Sun by Selectman Bob Jackson, demanded that Gabriel be terminated and barred from the building.

They're also the first public evidence of issues within Town Hall that former employees say have gone unsolved for a while.

"Ms. Gabriel's actions demonstrate a severely hostile work environment that has been emanating from the accountant and treasurer for well over three years, making it difficult to nearly impossible to perform our own duties," clerical union chapter chairwoman Pam Berman wrote in one letter to selectmen.

Gabriel, who now works as Topsfield's accountant and worked in Tyngsboro on a temporary basis every Friday, has left Tyngsboro since the confrontation.

Advertisement

She filed an incident report with police.

"I don't know what to say," she said, noting how upset she was about the matter. "I'm just going to tell you it's absolutely and simply not true, what's being written here."

The confrontation

On June 24, Gabriel said she had read an upsetting email sent to town officials from Kathy Cayer, the assistant town accountant who is now taking a job as sewer administrator. The email argued that Gabriel should be getting her work done more quickly and working from home more, according to Gabriel.

Gabriel later called Cayer and exchanged a few harsh words, she said.

When Building Department administrative assistant Donna Lane-McPartlan tried to enter Gabriel's office afterward, Gabriel said she tried to tell her to leave.

Lane-McPartlan pushed back against the door to prevent it from shutting, according to the report Gabriel filed with police.

"I was just kind of taken aback with how physical she got, trying to push her way in, trying to close the door and asking her for a moment of privacy," Gabriel said.

"We trust the town will conduct a full investigation into the matter and the union will do one as well," the letter read. "We have reached out to our legal team and reserve the right to address the actions of the chief financial officer separately."

Dery declined to comment on the letter, saying that it addressed a personnel matter within Town Hall and was not meant for public release.

"Whoever did that, shame on them," he said of the letter's release.

Both Lane-McPartlan and Berman also declined to comment. Cayer could not be reached for comment.

After looking into the matter, Town Administrator Curt Bellavance said that he found Lane-McPartlan had done nothing wrong.

A history of tension

Town Hall's personnel problems extend beyond the most recent altercation.

Colburn-Dion stirred controversy when she ran for the collector position, arguing that the job should be appointed and not elected. She planned to appoint a qualified person if elected.

She said the information about her in the union's letters is incorrect.

She called the comments political retaliation.

Beyond the specifics, the incident is just the latest example of longstanding tensions between the town's financial departments and other employees.

The hostilities were enough to make former Sewer Administrator Caryn Decarteret leave roughly two months ago.

Decarteret caused a stir within Town Hall last year, after making one Facebook post about dealing with tough co-workers in the office. The post did not refer to any specific employee by name, and she was not disciplined.

The town then revamped its social media policy.

Decarteret said the Town Hall environment is part of the reason for her departure.

She described a "toxic, nasty, hostile" work environment with aggression that came from the treasurer or the accountant.

"Nobody else in Town Hall has a problem with anybody else, it's like they try to make things as difficult as possible for everybody that works for the town," she said.

Town Administrator Curt Bellavance, she argued, does nothing to address the problems.

"As far as I'm concerned, Curt is inept. He is absolutely useless when it comes to leadership and management," she said. "He doesn't even come out of his office."

On the opposite end, Gabriel describes a hostile work environment in which Colburn-Dion endured a lot.

Bellavance said that he's instituted an open-door policy since he's assumed the administrator position over a year ago.

He said he's met with staff since the incident unfolded, and said maybe he needs to meet with employees more regularly.

Dispute over position

Compounding the issue is a push by town officials to move Gabriel's accountant position out of the mid-manager's unit, part of the Service Employees International Union.

Town officials have argued that the accountant should not be part of a union when she's responsible for auditing other town departments, a combination that can lead to a conflict of interest.

The job's classification in the union is part of the reason Gabriel took the job in Topsfield.

The union, however, has consistently rejected the move to take the position out.

Dery said the union voted to let the treasurer out of its membership, and got nothing in return.

"Now they came back with another position, and because we won't let that one out, now all of a sudden the issue is we're not playing nice," he said. "But that's not the case at all. We always try our best to work with them."

But Gabriel argued the accountant's classification is not the primary reason for the hostilities.

"I would think that the primary issue is that there's been personnel issues that have gone unaddressed," she said. "It's been sort of longstanding at this point that things aren't getting addressed, and they're just getting worse."

Some selectmen say it's a problem that the town will need to figure out.

"I certainly do believe that the Board of Selectmen should see to it that the town administrator and labor counsel act promptly to de-escalate the situation," said Selectman Corliss Lambert.

Jackson, the selectman, argued that the town needs to adopt a town charter, such as the one being crafted by the Government Study Commission. The charter will define the organizational structure in Town Hall.

"We have many employees who simply don't report into the administration, they report into various boards within that Town Hall," he said.

It's hard for the town administrator to manage people who don't report to him, Jackson said.

He said the accountant position needs to come out of the union, noting that two people have declined the job since learning it was unionized.

Welcome to your discussion forum: Sign in with a Disqus account or your social networking account for your comment to be posted immediately, provided it meets the guidelines. (READ HOW.)
Comments made here are the sole responsibility of the person posting them; these comments do not reflect the opinion of The Sun. So keep it civil.